George WeigelA 'Blue Star' juniper... the way it should look.Q: Some of my ‘Blue Star’ junipers out front emerged from the winter looking brown and matted, except for the tips. They are the ones closest to the drive, so they had more snow on top than the others. By the way, we rarely, if ever, use salt on the drive. Is there a treatment?

A: I’ve seen ‘Blue Stars’ occasionally look beat up as they age (or in your case, when they spend a couple of months flattened under snow).

Most of the time, the sad-looking junipers are in lousy clay in spots where water sometimes backs up. Those dual stresses can make junipers lose an inordinate amount of their inner, older needles.

This is not a case of tip blight -- a common juniper disease. In that one, the tip growth dies. You’ve got just the opposite -- healthy tips and not much inside.

Unfortunately, junipers don’t shear well. Some evergreens that get pulled apart by snow or get floppy and ugly with age can be pruned heavily to give them a new lease on life. That kind of pruning can kill junipers, spruce and pines. So there’s no quick fix here. ‘Blue Stars’ are such short plants that tying them up doesn’t work as can help the look of a big bushy cypress or arborvitae.

If these were mine, I’d wait and see if enough new growth occurs this year to improve the look. Otherwise, you’re looking at yanking them and buying new -- or switching to a different plant.

If you replant, improve the soil to create slightly raised beds. That’ll correct any drainage drawbacks. Fertilizing won’t do much for that interior growth and neither will spraying anything on the plants.